Rhythmic Gymnastics began in the Soviet Union in the beginning of the 20th Century. Originally, it was a non-competitive sport. During the 1960's, it finally did become a competitive sport after being acknowledged by FIG (Federale International de Gymnastique (French)). It is said that rhythmic gymnastics was created as criticism of artistic gymnastics. Artistic gymnastics, at the time, did not have a distinction between women's and men's gymnastics.

RG is a combination of flexibility, coordination, musicality,grace, determination, and years of hard work. There are five apparatuses, which make RG stand out, rope, hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbon. Many of the elements come from the male portion of ballet, for example, tour en l'air.

The first World Championships were held in Budapest, where there were only 28 contestants!! As opposed to nowadays, there are hundreds of contestants from countries all over the world. Bulgaria, Spain, France, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, China, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, South Africa, Brazil, Italy, Australia, Cuba, Germany, the United States, Canada, and many, many more.

Although rhythmic gymnastics initially began in the USSR, many people were involved in its "creation". It's roots go back to ancient Greece. The main names though in its creation are Per Henrik Ling (SWE 1814) George Demeney (FRA also during 19th century), Emilie Jaques Dalcroze (FRA 19th century, eurhythmics), Elli Björksten (FIN), Rudolf Bode (GER).

After WWII, scoring methods were developed. Originally the name had been Eurhythmics, was changed to Modern Rhythmic Gymnastics, then changed to Rhythmic Sportive Gymnastics, and finally simplified as Rhythmic Gymnastics.

Here is a list of where the World Championships were held over the years:

#1 -1963 - Budapest Szavinkova, USSR
#2 -1965 - Prague Micechova, Czechoslovakia
#3 -1967 - Copenhagen Karpoukhina, USSR
#4 -1969 - Varna Guigova, Bulgaria - Robeva 2nd
#5 -1971 - Havana Guigova, Bulgaria
#6 -1973 - Rotterdam Chugurova, USSR
#7 -1975 - Madrid Rischer, West Germany
#8 -1977 - Basel Deriugina, USSR
#9 -1979 - London Deriugina, USSR
#10-1981 - Munich Ralenkova, Bulgaria - Raeva 2nd
#11-1983 - Strasbourg Guerguieva, Bulgaria - Ignatova 2nd
#12-1985 - Valladolid Guerguieva, Bulgaria - Ignatova 2nd
#13-1987 - Varna Panova, Bulgaria
#14-1989 - Sarajevo Timochenko, USSR
#15-1991 - Athens Skaldina, USSR
#16-1992 - Brussels Kostina, Russia
#17-1993 - Alicante Petrova, Bulgaria
#18-1994 - Paris Petrova, Bulgaria - Zaripova 2nd
#19-1995 - Vienna Petrova, Bulgaria - Serebrianskaya 2nd)
#20-1996 - Budapest no all-around competition was held (winners in the four finals were Lukyanenko, Serebrianskaya, Zaripova and Vitrichenko)
#21-1997 - Berlin Vitrichenko, Ukraine
#22-1998 - Sevilla group competition only (winner: Belarus, Spain 2nd)
#23-1999 - Osaka Kabaeva, Russia
#25-2001 - Madrid Kabaeva, Russia
#26- 2002-
#27- 2003- Budapest

Olympics Games and winners

#23-1984 - Los Angeles Fung, Canada

#24-1988 - Seoul Lobach, USSR

#25-1992 - Barcelona Timochenko, former USSR

#26-1996 - Atlanta Serebrianskaya, Ukraine

#27-2000 - Sydney Barsoukova, Russia

#28-2004 - Athens

some of this information was taken from Kalev-history home.echo-on.net . . .

more will be added later! enjoy!!!!

Informative post, just one tiny thing though. FIG is actually
Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
and can be found at fig-gymnastics.co . . .

~>Nessa

oops sorry about the typo.. yes, international should have the "e".. and i was too lazy to switch to french on my pc for the accents. thanks for the correction though!!

Good post, I see you used my idea from the other thread. I just hit the mod button to see if we can make this a sticky.

Much Love,
Dasha

thats cool, I knew some of that but most of it was new. I had heard that it traced its roots back to acient greece. I think I read something that they just used to dance around with ribbons and such, but it was never really any sport, it was like a fun party thing. I may very well be wrong thoiught to, I dont rememebr to much. But thanks sweete

Fate

i also learned that the group competition of RG didn't become an Olympic sport till 1996!!

"i also learned that the group competition of RG didn't become an Olympic sport till 1996!!"

Interestingly it WAS an olympic sport before 1996, too. In 1956 there was a group competition held, but within the AG competition! Hungary won the gold with 6 ribbons. So roots of RG originate there also.

Gregorius-

Sorry, but no, that's incorrect. it was NOT an Olympic sport till 1996. how could it have been if the individual competition wasn't made an Olympic sport until 1984.. the first person to win an Olympic medal in the sport was Lori Fung (CAN). it was only until the 1960's that it was recognized by FIG. there were competitions held, like the one in Hungary, but it was not an Olympic competition. it was a WORLD championships.

"In 1962, rhythmic gymnastics were recognized as a sport by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). In 1963 in Budapest, Hungary, the first Rhythmic World Championship took place. It included 28 athlets from 10 countries. In 1973, the United States joined the sport of rhythmic gymnastics during the Rhythmic World Championships. During the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the rhythmic individual all-around competition was held for the first time. At the Centenial Olympics this year in Atlanta, the rhythmic group event will be a medal-sport for the first time. "

shrike.depaul.edu . . .

the Olympic Games were held in Atlanta in 1996.
Hungary was the first World Championships.

Thanks for posting

Any good webbies on technical stuff, like the names of the elements gymnasts perform and rules? It would be a great contribution to this thread even if it's not "history."

Much Love,
Dasha

oh yes! there is plenty of information on the web about that. i would have to search for it.. that's a very good idea.. it would deal with history.. the evolution of the COP!

This site here:

cop2003.nucurve.co . . .

Is the Code of Points. It isn't official or 100% accurate but I think it's the best out there for the COP.

~>Nessa

very cool! since you found it, will you do the honors of posting it? lol

Karma for you nessa! Now I know where to look for rules and what not.

I can't wait to get back to university where I have a highspeed connexion for watching RSG vids. I'm on 56k now *cry*

Much Love,
Dasha

Without sounding too stupid... do you mean posting it as a new topic???

~>Nessa - who happens to be a little slow on the uptake today

Nessa-

yeah sure! post it as a new topic i guess.. we can have history for the sport itself and then history of the changing rules?? or you can post it under here.. whichever you prefer!

rsgsweetie - I know I will make some giant mistake when writing about it (and I have to go away for a few days anyway) so if you or someone else could do it that would be great! It's just easier than having millions of posts after it correcting what I have said wrong .

Thanx in advance.
~>Nessa

Nessa-

ok, no problem! enjoy your trip!!!! hope it's some place nice!

"Gregorius-

Sorry, but no, that's incorrect. it was NOT an Olympic sport till 1996. how could it have been if the individual competition wasn't made an Olympic sport until 1984.. the first person to win an Olympic medal in the sport was Lori Fung (CAN). it was only until the 1960's that it was recognized by FIG."

That's OK, I know it; I think I wasn't clear enough in my original message:

From 1928, to 1956, there was a group competition held, with apparatus - as part of the artistic gymnastics competition. They did the routines to music, so it was very much like RG - though RG was nonexistent at the time. But the competition in Melbourne was surely one of the roots. It wasn't RG, but it was as close as you can get. I'm trying to find a picture.

no, i don't think that was part of its roots because dances with ribbons were being done in Gree long before 1928.

eliterg.com . . . is a great link for sport history as well as COP evolution. its canadian based. enjoy. they even have information on the japenese mens rg program and aesthetic group gymnastics.

Thank you so much FlexisKey! i will definitely look into both of the sites given by you and Nessa when i have enough free time.

Interesting I have always wanted to know more about the scoring of rythmic... Thank you!

www.geocities.com . . .
I know this is kinda of off topic but please see our site...we are all Canada has for hope...we are next worlds championships...we area lready 9th in the world and we have elena t on our team!We are the last canadian hope-come out and support us or at leats look at our pictures on the site:
"http://www.geocities.com/rhythmicexpressions/d-sofia.html"

oh nevermind